The being in body, Footprints of a dancing body
Jef Gianadda for Exel Magazine
Newspaper article
Corpus graphically
The dancer and the photographer - or five years of work for Malaïka Weber and Roger Plaschy of Lausanne, Switzerland, who celebrate the individual in movement with elegance and power in this singular book of art – The being in body, footprints of a dancing body-
The book's opening illustration, engraved in a subtle and dynamic brush-painted calligraphy - as are its hundred or so other illustrations- is captioned by: “Atoms dance, the heavens and the air dance, joyful souls dance “, which in so few words reveals the essential. Over and above its magnificent aesthetics, The being in body, - and its subtitle footprints of a dancing body - delicately remind us, in English and in French, that life exists elsewhere than in front of a computer screen and that it is neither to be found in our static mental agitations nor in our escape into consumerism.
No! Life exists here and now, in our own bodies, in our actual selves. The words of Nietsche, chosen as in echo to those of the dancer, express. This more clearly: “Excessive work and even leisure separate us from our bodies' roots. But they're looking after us they say ! Hormone balance, loveless conception, genetic therapy, medicine for our difficulty in embodying our intimacy, replacement parts for the body-machine and many other techniques are on sale for building a competitive, performing being.
The book's opening illustration, engraved in a subtle and dynamic brush-painted calligraphy - as are its hundred or so other illustrations- is captioned by: “Atoms dance, the heavens and the air dance, joyful souls dance “, which in so few words reveals the essential. Over and above its magnificent aesthetics, The being in body, - and its subtitle footprints of a dancing body - delicately remind us, in English and in French, that life exists elsewhere than in front of a computer screen and that it is neither to be found in our static mental agitations nor in our escape into consumerism.
The book, which is dedicated both to the venerable Kazuo Ohno (the founder of Buto - the Japanese art of dance), who at the age of 97 remains the youngest prince of dance, as well as to all other
dancers, present and future”, breaths in refined calmness and dares to take its place and offer serenity through white-coloured pages tainted either with one of Nietsche's thoughts “What is great
in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal” or with a silhouette moving on a calligraphic background. In tandem, bathed in mystery of a rare sensitivity and perfectly matched to each other,
Roger Plaschy's technically perfect photographs capture propelled movement without holding on to it and grasp the surge of motion without freezing it; they reinventing shadows and light beyond
the ephemeral, and in their silent beckoning they vibrate evanescence in all its substance.
In parallel, Malaïka, the dancer, this many-sided model of mystical plasticity, metamorphoses herself in an elastic, poly-morphological, infinite and enigmatic solitary saraband. Five years of
work lie behind this 160-page long poetic festival of emotion. Absolutely dazzling!